 | Rotary Club of Wylie East Fork proudly sponsored the Wylie Chamber of Commerce luncheon this week. The theme was Why Leaders Matter. Our esteemed president, Ofilia Barrera, spoke about why she joined Rotary, and invited the attendees to our weekly meetings. Hello, everyone. I am Ofilia Barrera, the President of Rotary Club Wylie East Fork this year. You may also know me as your friendly, local librarian, as I am also the Director of the Smith Public Library. Today, I thought I’d talk about leadership and why I joined Rotary. You may all be familiar with Rotary and its international goals, such as eradicating polio or providing clean water to populations worldwide. Those are certainly important and worthy causes that we support at a local level, but that’s not why I joined Rotary. I joined Rotary to make a difference in our local community. Our small Rotary Club, made up of 24 active members, provides and installs American flags for City Hall, downtown Wylie, and some local neighborhoods for the five major patriotic holidays. We also fundraise for scholarships for Wylie students to go to college. Every year, we send six students, all expenses paid, to RYLA, a youth leadership camp, where these kids learn lessons that they can use throughout their lifetime. I recently met several camp counselors who attended the camp as kids and kept volunteering there because it changed their lives so profoundly. This past year, we partnered with other local service organizations to build Little Free Libraries for our community. I know what you’re thinking. I’m using my position as President to push libraries on everyone, but that one wasn’t even my idea! I swear! I wholeheartedly supported it, but I did not bring that one to the table. In my opinion, our biggest accomplishment over the past year is the grant we were awarded to help Hartman Elementary build its Dream Space. This sensory-inclusive room now gives overstimulated students a place to calm down. It can also double as an additional classroom space whenever needed. How do these things get done? Where does the money come from? Who organizes the projects, oversees them, and makes sure they are completed? We do. Rotary is all about leadership. You don’t have to be a CEO or manager to be a leader. You can be a leader wherever you are when you decide to make a difference by joining a local service organization and finding a project that excites you. Leaders find a way to help others, improve their community, and make things better for everyone no matter what their station in life is. To me, leadership is connection plus action. At our weekly meetings, Thursdays at noon at Landon Winery - consider this your formal invitation - we often have speakers who inspire us with their stories about what they do to make the world a better place. This year's theme for all Rotary Clubs is: Create Hope in the World. Everyone has different ideas on what makes a great leader. Rotary has taught me that creating hope is possibly the most powerful skill in a leader's arsenal. If you can create hope, make those connections, and work towards a common goal - you become unstoppable. And that’s why I joined Rotary. |